Candiani Summer Fest 2009

Jun-11-2009

The Candiani Summer Fest promises a wide range of meetings and shows in this year’s programme.

Between June and July, 2009 the Centro Culturale Candiani will examine walking as a theme. After the great success of last year’s theme on clouds, this year will have film, readings, concerts, performances and meetings centering on a theme that is sure to capture the public’s interest and that goes beyond being simply a physical activity.

These days, when treking, walking, pilgrimages, faith itineraries and fly by night travelling is fashionable, it may seem strange to stage a fixed ‘residential’ festival. But walking also means observing, meeting, coming to terms with, communicating and finally arriving at a point in which stories, pictures, sounds and metaphors are the natural outcome.

That’s what the festival’s title reminds us of. There are four distinct sections to the festival – Meetings, Performance, Projections and Animation to fully interpret the theme and give wide range to its expression.
Speakers have been chosen who have explored the theme philosophically, anthropologically and from an ethical point of view. Those who see walking as a way of escaping a busy, fast-paced, consumer centred life and those who have discovered walking as a way back to nature and their surroundings.
There are many important guest speakers from Italo Testa to Duccio Demetrio, from Daniele Del Giudice to Mario Brunello to only mention a few.
Last but not least is the Chatwin Prize, which is spreading throughout the world thanks to Bruce Chatwin’s widow Elisabeth. It’s aim is to spread the culture of travel in memory of Chatwin and his works and philosophy. His was an idea of travel as a slow, thinking journey – very often a walking journey.

Dancing is a journey as well and in the performance section, with Por las calles de Buenos Aires a couple, for three minutes, the length of a tango, become one harmonious body. With the dance company Flamenco Lunares, we are taken on an interior journey, understanding the ‘personality’ of the dance that has become a style of life and a way of being.

Dance is yet another thing with No hay caminos, hay que caminar … produced by Andreij Tarkowskij with the Centro Teatrale di Ricerca di Venezia. Two worlds meet and two cultures that become a metaphor for a journey. The production is in honour of Luigi Nono e Andrej Tarkowsij.

How often do we use music as an escape or as a journey? Spiritual songs such as Wade in the Water, The Gospel Train or the famous Swing Low, Sweet Chariot feature. These songs all trace a spiritual journey or an escape from slavery in America where bluesmen walked from the country to the cities, from south to north, hundreds of kilometres following the great dream – freedom.
The music will be wide ranging from the suggestive sounds of a great new voice from Africa, Dobet Gnahorè to the old blues of Louisiana Red, music from Claudio Cojaniz’s NION Orchestra to a night time tango and the unconventional Melingo. The music will attempt to follow the same roads, the same emotional journey.

Cinema has great evocative power. We’ll be following the lives of some who, for vocation or for necessity, take up a journey. We’ll follow them on their trip and become part of their spiritual journey or understanding of the world, politics, narration or solitude. Film allows us to ‘move’ by sitting in front of a screen.
The Candiani Summer Fest will also host the return of the Poetry slam. This event puts poetry on the move. Poetry is taken amongst the people, to be listened to, to be enjoyed and to pass the word. Walking also means discovering other places and their traditions. The Osteria Vida Nova is also putting together popular culture and good food in theme evenings with entertainment.

The Candiani summer fest is on its way; a walking, journeying experience to share with artists, thinkers and poets who have accepted to share their talents with us.
The desire to walk, to journey, we know will never have an end as long as there is life. It is a metaphor for man’s existence, for personal journeys along the road that is life.